If there’s a blog there’s an opinion. If there’s
an opposing opinion there is an extreme. It’s the nature of blogging.
Extreme liberals versus Extreme Conservatives. Hyper Atheists versus
Biblical Extremists. It gets pretty darn annoying when those polar
opposites are so blind to everything else that they wind up being a
travesty of their position. One of these that come to the fore in my
immediate thinking because of their extreme irresponsibility are Family
Blogs.
Not so much a blog operated by a family but those
blogs that paint a picture of what family life is. They blog to expose
others to the reality of family—out of a need to address the topic or
for narcism’s sake; doesn’t matter.
Family-Haters
You have the one kind that can’t see a single redeeming quality about
families. Goth pics up along the border and snippets of Poe spattered
on the site. These bloggers, through their dark tinted sunglasses, see
all families rife with duplicity, baptized in abuse and propagating an
unneeded institution.
Heck, the news doesn’t help things by constantly
broadcasting kids being killed (probably by parents) and wives being
beaten by their husbands and mothers going out right nuts and drowning
their kids. I know the media has a duty to report but sometimes it
feels as if they’re clapping their hands at the destruction of homes
rather than looking at the octogenarians that still hold hands.
Family-Crusaders
So you get the bloggers who want to restore order to the false
perceptions of family on a crusade to show that Family Life is Good. I
applaud the goal but they then go to illustrate a perfect family who
have absolutely nothing wrong with their home and everything they do
comes out perfect. Their marriage is bliss, their toilet smells like
roses, their trash is edible and their two point five children are
obedient, loving, smart and strong. In fact, they’re so close to heaven
that all they have to do is jump on their beds during one of their 365
sunny mornings and POP their head is poking right into Heaven’s clouds.
Both of these types of blogs are outright damaging and (once again) irresponsible.
With Great Blogging, Comes Responsibility
There are people surfing the web searching for answers. Something
happens in their home at two in the morning (their kid hasn’t slept in
six years, or their daughter got home late or the couple had another
fight) and they’re on the web, searching for answers.
On the one hand they might find the bleak view of
family and see it for what it is (maybe an angry teen) or see that
their own situation is hopeless. The Lie has been propagated and now
this Surfer goes to bed thinking that their family’s end is near.
On the other hand the surfer might stumble on this
Edenic family and lose hope: their family is not like that. Their trash
does stink. Their kids aren’t perfect. After months of not sleeping
they sometimes cry and here this Perfect Family site just went off and
told them “Yup, you’re an anomaly. You can lose hope now. You’re not
perfect.†The Lie has, once again, been propagated.
I wish that these later sites, in their effort to
be helpful, opened their eyes and realized how irresponsible they’re
being with the tool of communication. Addressing them: You bloggers can
still fight for a proper outlook on Family while dealing with problems
that come up in the family. That octogenarian couple, their first five
years was bordering on divorce but they carried their home through it
and now, they hold hands in the park. I’m not asking you dadbloggers or
your familybloggers or you lovebloggers to take out your dirty laundry
in front of everyone; I’m just saying give people a little hope by
showing that you make mistakes and that the Surfers are not alone.
Update: As per Curt’s good advice, some people doing it right:
Crossposted at my personal junk site